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Swimming & Diving
Cal alum Lauren Boyle captured a silver medal in the 1500-meter freestyle Tuesday at the FINA World Championships, lowering her New Zealand national record to 15:40.14.
Incoming freshman Kathleen Baker makes good on a second chance by finishing fifth in the 100 back with a personal best 59.63 to move on to the 2015 World Championships final.
Rugby
Thirteen Golden Bears have received a total of 16 honors with the announcement of the 2014-15 All-Americans to end July. Six California players, including four new honorees, were awarded full All-America recognition in 15s, bringing that total number in Cal history to 131 all-time.
Baseball
Joseph Healy: What was the general reaction to the season enjoyed by the Bears in 2015? Coming into the season with modest expectations, but then getting into a regional and making some noise had to be nice. Of course, I also imagine there is a bit of disappointment that they were quite literally one hit away from getting into a super regional and couldn't get it done.
Nik Jam: I was really happy for the seniors. They signed on for a Cal team that had just been reinstated but still had an uncertain future. It would have been very unfortunate for that class to graduate without a postseason berth. It was frustrating that this team didn't get national recognition for most of the year. While their seeding was about right, because they did have a mid-season stumble against weak teams at home (Washington State, Stanford), they had some solid series wins against Arizona State and USC, and I felt like they could have been talked about more nationally.
There was nothing to hold our heads down for, but the way the regional ended was very disappointing. Indeed the Bears were two outs away from winning the regional and then in extra innings had a few shots to win that Game 6 and put it away. I'm an A's fan. I remember in 2013 when the A's lost Game 4 of the ALDS and had to play Game 5 against Justin Verlander. I remember that feeling of dread, that wound up becoming reality as Verlander and the Detroit Tigers were pretty much automatic. That's how I felt about Game 7. While Cal did have a great chance to win that game too after Chris Paul's clutch home run, it was hard to think that the home town Texas A&M team wouldn't pull it out. It was a gut-wrenching way for the season to end and it took me a while to get over. I know the players felt that way too.
JH: In the grand scheme of things, just the fact that the program exists is a win, given that the program was left for dead in 2011. In your estimation, how big a role does the program's resurrection play in the way the program is run and how it is supported locally? Is that whole saga from four years ago still part of the discussion at all?
NJ: When watching Cal play in the Regionals on ESPN and really the whole season on Pac-12 Networks, the program's cut and reinstatement was mentioned quite a lot by the broadcasters. I think it's still a cool story, especially given that the senior class was the first class to join Cal despite being unsure about the program's future. It took a while for the program to start having normal recruiting classes. Soon, we'll be a normal team again, but for now we're still behind a recruiting class or two, so the story will probably still be mentioned when watching Cal games on TV.
The fact is, Cal athletics is still in the red, and while things seem okay now, we can never be sure that some sports will be on the chopping block again, and baseball is still one of the most expensive programs to run. It may be in the back of recruits' minds for years to come.
However, the community got stronger as well as a result. A lot of money was raised for the baseball team. Now we have permanent lights in the stadium. Previously, until 2012, we could only have day games. Now we regularly have night games. Now there's a real scoreboard in centerfield. This also allows Cal to be eligible to host a regional should they be deserving in the future. I don't know if these things happen without the donations Cal baseball got to keep the program running for a while. These donations are still coming in, and fundraisers are still going on.
Men's Basketball
The California men's basketball team will face Virginia on Dec. 22, 2015 as part of a two-game series with the Cavaliers.
Football
Bruce Jenkins: Cal's Sonny Dykes likes what his Bears are doing
Sonny Dykes' first year at Cal was such an unmitigated disaster, nobody expected much from the Bears last season. It turned into can't-miss theater, albeit the type requiring constant intermissions. When the other team had the ball, it was an excellent time to leave your seat.
Couldn't be stopped, couldn't stop anybody. That gets a football program only halfway to relevance — but it was exciting. Not many two-game winning streaks feature scores of 59-56 (over Colorado) and 60-59 (over Washington State), but that was the 5-7 Bears after what Dykes called a "1-and-350" maiden season. "Or whatever it was. We won one game and lost a whole bunch. It felt like 350."
Dykes was in a relaxed, good-humored mood at Monday's annual college-football media day at Levi's Stadium. "It's that time of year when everybody's optimistic," he said. "You're not gonna have any coaches saying, ‘Boy, we're gonna stink this year.' There have been times when I kinda wanted to say that (laughter), but I feel like we're making strides. The great thing about growing pains is the payoff, and we're anxious about the payoff this year."
BURBANK, California — California's Jared Goff enters 2015 as one of the top quarterbacks in the country. The big-armed junior is a Heisman contender and widely projected to be a first-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He's also a primary reason many expect the Golden Bears to become a bowl team this season, and perhaps even push Oregon and Stanford in the Pac-12 North.
But two years ago, Goff was a true freshman learning on the fly as the Golden Bears labored through a 1-11 season. He was asked plenty about that experience during Pac-12 Media Days last week, particularly because South contender UCLA is widely expected to start highly touted true freshman Josh Rosen this season.
The advice and insight, though, could also apply to Oregon State's Seth Collins, who will enter fall camp competing with redshirt freshman Nick Mitchell for the Beavers' starting job.
"Enjoy every second, don't hesitate and be the best you can be right now, because it goes by (fast)," Goff said " ... Don't take anything for granted. Don't wait to be good. Be good today, tomorrow. Be good as a freshman."
Vince Young must wear Cal shirt on TV if Bears beat Texas
Former Texas quarterback Vince Young may be wearing a Cal shirt on the Longhorn Network in September.
Young has made a bet with a Texas high school football coach and if Cal beats Texas on September 19 Young will wear a Cal shirt on air. Young started appearing on LHN's "Texas GameDay" in 2014.
How did the bet happen? Scott Nady used to play football at Cal and is now the coach at Dallas' Parish Episcopal High School. He and Young became friends years ago and the bet was hatched while on an offseason trip to Mexico.
Sept. 19th CAL vs. Texas! Loser goes on TV in other schools shirt! VY is going to look GREAT in Blue & Gold! Go Bears pic.twitter.com/pkRAyFDZAo
— Scott X. Nady (@CoachNady) July 30, 2015